The Subcontinent’s Early Postal History

Runners, messengers, pigeons. Meet the carriers who delivered India’s mail during the early days of the postal system.

A surviving piece of registered mail postmarked Bombay, November 23, 1866. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

In ancient times, a network of postal runners upheld India’s early mailing system through which kings gathered, exchanged, and passed on information during wartime. Many dangers came with the job — wild animals, deep jungles, and harsh weather — but still, these runners delivered royal mail from one part of the country to another.

Soon, Sher Shah Suri rose from the rank of Private to an Emperor during the 16th century. Known as a great Muslim ruler of India, he brought another carrier into play — horses. During his reign, Sher Shah Suri introduced the horse dak system in 1541 and constructed a 2000 mile stretch to bring this system alive from Bengal’s Grand Trunk Road all the way to Peshawar. In these routes, postal services used relays and changed horses at caravanserais or roadside inns.

Later Mughals, particularly Akbar, made improvements to this system. For regular mail delivery and better access, he introduced horse couriers between Agra and Kabul, and added another accessory — camels — for journeys across the deserts. However, most of these services were expensive, meaning the common man’s messages rarely had a place here.

Britain’s Involvement

In the next century, the East India Company introduced postal hubs in three main cities, Bombay, Madras, and Calcutta, during 1688. Mail was brought here, sorted, and sent to its destination in bags secured with company seals that only postal chiefs could open. Then, in 1774, things took a turn.

Till this point, mail was exclusive to the status quo — kings, zamindars, company officials — and the postal system was chiefly built around their needs. So when British India’s Governor General opened up the postal service to the public, it also meant a new age of communication would soon follow suit.

Post-Independence Years

After Britain’s exit, the postal services were handed over to the new government. But soon enough, the subcontinent split into India and Pakistan, and both countries turned to stamps in order to make the colonial system their own. Carrier birds, camels, cycles, all became images that made their way into a new catalogue of stamps. Through these visuals, both neighbours now found themselves separated by a hostile border, only to tell a remarkably similar story. In many ways, Indian and Pakistani stamps from this time wanted to bring the subcontinent’s past onto their perforated sheets. The message both countries sought to tell here was that the postal service may have been Britain’s legacy, but its origins are still definingly Indian.

Today, thousands of postal workers continue this tradition in the modern world. Each day, they put on their khaki uniform and set to work receiving, sorting, and delivering letters. In an interview with a newspaper, one postman, N Saravanan, notes that a lot has changed over the years from a decade ago, when his bundles mostly contained inland letters and the 25p postcards. Contrary to popular belief, he says:

“Although several private courier services have come up, giving regular updates on WhatsApp and what not, our workload has only gone up.”

Today, it’s easy to think of letters as an obsolete form of communication. But a glimpse into history shows us just how important this was and the lengths people were willing to go for getting these ordinary perforated sheets from one place to another.